Sheet sorting means



Sept. 3, 1935. A. ROSENTHAL SHEET SORTING MEANS Filed Feb. 10, 1934 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 w? v? m 7A AN g hl hl hlflfl l lndn w |Ll.l\ mm g s Mp o @i A, Q U :1 1 I nmv & N 2

Rm m MIT M Nm R E 0 w Wn u Q f i p 1935 A. ROSENTHAL 2,013,220

SHEET SORTING MEANS Filed Feb. 10, 1934 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 HIIII-A I IN VENTOR Patented Sept. 3, 1935 UNITED STATES SHEET SORTING Arthur Rosenthal,

Grand Rapids, Mich, assignor to The Rose Patch & Lahelv Company, Grand Rapids, Mich.

Application February 10, 1934, Serial No. 710,600

6 Claims.

tinucus roll of paper and the letterheads are then fedjto-"a cut-off'means and are delivered from the'rnachine singly and unsorted inthe order in which thy are printed on the roll. My invention has for its objects:

First, to produce an apparatus for sorting the letterheads or sheets as they are delivered from a press so that they pass through a drier and arethen delivered in stacks so that all similar letterheads are in a single stack, or, if two plates'are used toprint the same letterhead, the engraving on the letterheads of eachstack lies in hefsame direction in the stack.

"Second; to provide such an apparatus that is simple inlconstruction and sure in operation.

' Third; to provide such an apparatus that is run from the power plant of the printing press itself and can be easily synchronized therewith. Cther objects and advantages pertaining to detailsofj construction and operation will appear from the description to' follow. A preferred embodiment of my invention is illustrated in the accompanying'drawings, in which: Fjig. 1 isa plan view of my device showing letterheads being delivered from the press to the euttenand thence to the drier.

Big. 2" isa sectional view taken on line 2-2 of Fi '1.

" Fig. 3 is asectional view taken on line 3-3 of Fig. 2.

"Fig, 4 is a detail view of the cam for reciprocating the sorting conveyor.

ig'. 5 1m view of the strip of paper with opposed, different letterheads printed thereon. The parts will be identified by'their numerals of referencewhichare the same in all theviews. The printing press which corresponds to that of my co-pending application is indicated at the left of Fig. 1. The letterheads or other'printe'd sheets passing from that machine are shown at I,"passing under the cut-off mechanism 2 which need not bedescribed in detail. At the point of delivery of the letterheads is a driven shaft 3 journaled in brackets 4. This shaft is driven by a suitable pulley 5 keyed thereon and a belt 6- running to a pulley 1. keyed on a rotating shaft which is part of the printing press and is driven by the power plant of the printing press. The belt is kept tight by an idler 9. A frame I is pivoted on the shaft 3 with one end ll thereof free for up and down reciprocation as is indicated by the dotted lines in Fig. 2; A shaft I2 is I carried by the free end of the frame and has thereon a plurality of pulleys l3 free for rotation. A plurality of pulleys l5 are mounted on the shaft 3 and arekeyed or otherwise fastened 10 thereon for rotation with the shaft as it rotates. A plurality of belts l6 join the pulleys f3 and I5 in pairs to form a continuous belt conveyor. The frame It] being pivoted on the shaft 3, it is possible to reciprocate the end of this conveyor as indicated without interfering with the drive thereof and the single letterheads or sheets" I! are fed by the conveyor.

Below the conveyor is a shaft I8.journaled in supports IQ for reciprocation. This shaft bears a crank 20 having a crank pin 2| engaging a cam slot 22 on the cylindrical surface 23 of a rotating cylindrical cam 24 which is keyed or otherwise attached on the shaft 25 which is driven by a gear 26 driven by a pinion 21 mounted on the shaft. 8. The cam slot 22v and the stud 2|, cooperate to reciprocate the shaft I8. Afiixed to the other end of shaft I8 is a'crank 28. A rod 29 is connected to crank 28 by a universaljoint connection 30.. and this rod is connected to the 30 frame liignear its free end by a similar universal joint connection 3|. Theoperation of the press drives the cam 24 which reciprocates shaft [8 and this in turn causes an up and down reciprocation ofthe end of the frame ID. This apparatus is timed to operate so that. one up and down reciprocation of the end of. the frame In occurs for each impression of the printing press. and feedingof two letterheads, sothat one letterhead is discharged at the top of the reciprocation of 40 the frame and the next letterhead is discharged at, the bottom position of the frame.

Directly at the end of this pivoted conveyoris located a continuous belt, conveyor 32 passing through a drying hood 33 which may be of any desired construction. The conveyor 32 is providedwith end rollers 34. on which the continuous belt runs and. the web- 35 thereof is of a width sufficient to carry two parallel rows of sheets or letterheads with the individual sheets arrangedone behind the other as they are delivered from the reciprocating conveyor. The conveyor 32 is located to receive the letterheads of one row directly from the end of. the reciprocating conveyor or frame I0 and the letterheads of this row are those discharged at the bottom of the up and down reciprocating motion of the frame Ill.

Above the conveyor 35 and at an angle thereto is a third continuous belt conveyor 33 driven by means of a chain or belt 31 operating on apulley 38 on the end of the roll 35. and engaging a pulley 39 connected by universal joint connection 43 to a roll 4| over which the web 12 of the continuous belt conveyor 35 operates. The conveyor 36 is directly above the conveyor 32 and receives letterheads from the frame IE1 at its upper position. At the side of the web 12 of conveyor 36 is a metal guide member 43 which projects above the web 42 and guides the letterheads on the belt 42 to the side of the conveyor 32 not occupied by the row of letterheads delivered from the frame l3 directly to the conveyor 32. This forms two parallel rows of letterheads and the identical letterheads are lined up in separate rows. The conveyor 32 carries the rows of letterheads through the drier and deposits them in piles at the discharge from this conveyor.

It will be understood that as the device operates the opposed letterheads are fed from the cutter 2 to the conveyor of the frame [9 and are alternately fed to the conveyor 32 or the conveyor 36. Those fed directly to the conveyor 32 pass as a row through the drier, while those fed to conveyor 36 eventually pass to conveyor 32 to form a second row.

Using the apparatus in a press in which opposed letterheads are printed, it is only necessary to sort the sheets into two rows and it is only necessary to provide two positions.

I have shown and described my invention in the form preferred by me, but wish to claim the same broadly as well as specifically, as pointed out in the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. Sheet sorting means for use in conjunction with printing presses that print opposed or different sheets and deliver them singly, unsorted and in a definite order, comprising a driven shaft located at the point of delivery of said sheets from the press, a frame loosely pivoted on said shaft and having at its free end a shaft parallel to said driven shaft, a plurality of pulleys on each shaft and a plurality of belts connecting the pulleys of said shafts in pairs to form a continuous belt conveyor, means for driving said driven shaft from the press, means for causing up and down reciprocation of the free end of said frame timed to reciprocate once for each pair of sheets delivered from the press comprising a grooved cylinder cam, means for driving said cam from the printing press, a reciprocable shaft carrying a crank having a stud thereon cooperating with the groove of said grooved cam whereby said crank and shaft are reciprocated and carrying a second crank, a universal joint connection between said frame and said second crank, a second continuous belt conveyor of a width to convey two parallel rows of sheets with the individual sheets arranged one behind the other and positioned to receive sheets directly from said frame at its bottom position to form one of said rows of sheets, and a third continuous belt conveyor with a deflecting plate to steer sheets conveyed thereon at an angle to and driven from said second conveyor to receive sheets from said frame at its top position, and to deliver said sheets to said second conveyor to form a second row of sheetsjwhe'rby identical sheets are all placed in the same row.

2. Sheet sorting means for use in conjunction with printing presses that print opposed or different sheets and deliver them singly, unsorted and in a definite order, comprising a driven shaft located at the point of delivery of said sheets from the press, a frame loosely pivoted on said shaft and having at its free end a shaft parallel to said driven shaft, a plurality of pulleys on each shaft and a plurality of belts connecting the pulleys of said shafts in pairs to form a continuous belt conveyor, means for driving said driven shaft, means for causing up and down reciprocation of the free end of said frame timed to reciprocate once for each pair of sheets de livered from the press comprising a grooved cylinder cam, means for driving said cam, a reciprocableshaft carrying a crank having a stud thereon cooperating with the groove of said grooved cam whereby said crank and shaft are reciprocated and carrying a second crank, a universal joint connection between said frame and said second crank, a second continuous belt conveyor of a width to convey two parallel rows of sheets with the individual sheets arranged one behind the other and positioned to receive sheets directly from said frame at its bottom position to form one of said rows of sheets, and a third continuous belt conveyor at an angle to said second conveyor to receive sheets from said frame at its top position, and to deliver said sheets to said second conveyor to form a second row of sheets, whereby identical sheets are all placed in the same row.

3. Sheet sorting means for use in conjunction with a single conveyor and with printing presses that print opposed or different sheets and de liver them singly, unsorted and in a definite or-- der, comprising a driven shaft located at the point of delivery of said sheets from the press, a frame loosely pivoted on said shaft and having at its free end a shaft parallel to said driven shaft, a plurality of pulleys on each shaft and a plurality of belts connecting the pulleys of saidshafts in pairs to form a continuous belt conveyor, means for driving said driven shaft, means. for causing up and down reciprocation of the free end of said frame timed to reciprocate once for each pair of sheets delivered from the press, a second continuous belt conveyor of a width to convey two parallel rows of sheets with the individual sheets arranged one behind the other and positioned to receive sheets directly from said frame at its bottom position to form one of said rows of sheets, and a third continuous belt conveyor at an angle to said second conveyor to receive sheets from said frame at its top position, and to deliver said sheets to said second 7 conveyor to form a second row of sheets, whereby identical sheets are all placed in the same row.

4. Sheet sorting means for use in conjunction with a single conveyor and with printing presses that print opposed or different sheets and de and down reciprocation, means for driving said conveylor, means for causing up and down reciprocation of the free end of said conveyor timed to reciprocate once for each pair of sheets delivered from the press, a second continuous belt conveyor of a width to convey two parallel rows 475 of sheets with the individual sheets arranged one behind the other and positioned to receive sheets directly from said first conveyor at its bottom position to form one of said rows of sheets, and a third continuous belt conveyor at an angle to said second conveyor to receive sheets from said first conveyor at its top position, and to deliver said sheets to said second conveyor to form a second row of sheets, whereby identical sheets are all placed in the same row.

5. Sheet sorting means for use in conjunction with a single conveyor and with printing presses that print opposed or different sheets and deliver them singly, assorted and in definite order comprising a continuously feeding conveyor located at the point of delivery of sheets from the press and adapted to be reciprocated to deliver sheets therefrom alternately at two diflerent points, means for reciprocating said conveyor timed to reciprocate once for each pair of sheets delivered from the press, a second conveyor of a width to convey two parallel rows of sheets with the individual sheets arranged one behind the other and positioned to receive sheets from said first conveyor at one point of delivery therefrom to 'form one row of sheets on said second conveyor, and a third conveyor to receive sheets from said first conveyor at a second point of delivery therefrom and to convey said sheets to said second conveyor to form a second row of sheets thereon whereby identical sheets are all placed in the same row.

6. Sheet sorting means for use in conjunction with a single conveyor and with printing presses that print opposed or different sheets and deliver them singly, unsorted and in definite order comprising a continuously feeding conveyor of a width to convey two parallel rows of sheets with the individual sheets arranged one behind the other, and means including a reciprocating conveyor adapted to support and convey the sheets from said press to laterally spaced points on said continuously feeding conveyor to form rows of sheets thereon, the reciprocation of said reciprocating conveyor being timed to deliver sheets alternately to the different points, whereby identical sheets are all placed in the same row.

ARTHUR ROSENTHAL. 

